Business Topics

* Glendale Federal Bank is buying California Federal Bank's parent company to create the third-largest savings and loan in the country.

The merged institution, to be called California Federal Bank, will be based in San Francisco and have more than 400 branches with $51 billion in assets, the companies said.

The combined parent companies, First Nationwide Holdings, and Golden State Bancorp, will be called Golden State Bancorp.

BROADCASTING

* West Palm Beach-based Paxson Communications, which is acquiring stations for a family-oriented TV network Pax Net, agreed on Thursday to buy one station and permits to build another seven. Financial terms were not disclosed. Under the agreement, the company will acquire WFHL TV-23, which serves the Champaign/Decatur market in Illinois, and permits to build stations in Albuquerque, N.M.; Syracuse, N.Y.; Davenport, Iowa; Spokane, Wash.; Des Moines, Iowa; Mobile, Ala.; Shreveport, La.

CORPORATE

* The Venezuelan subsidiary of The Wackenhut Corp., based in Palm Beach Gardens, won a contract to provide security for General Motors production facilities in Caracas and Valencia, Venezuela. The five-year contract, effective Feb. 1, is valued at $600,000 the first year and calls for 35 guards. Also, Wackenhut's affiliates in Venezuela and Argentina won a two-year contract to provide security services to SIDOR, which operates a steel mill in Venezuela.

CRUISE INDUSTRY

* Carnival Corp., which runs Miami-based Carnival Cruise Lines, will ask shareholders to approve a ``blank check'' provision authorizing the board to create new preferred stock that would let the company raise money for business acquisitions, new cruise ships, or other purposes. The plan will give the company greater financial flexibility as the cruise ship industry continues to grow, the company and analysts said.

Shareholder approval will also be sought for a possible increase in the number of Carnival's common shares, through a stock split or other transaction, the filing said. Carnival shares, traded under the symbol CCL on the New York Stock Exchange, rose 31 cents to $55.94. The company's stock has risen almost 69 percent in the past year.

LEGAL

* Two South Florida men were charged in a commodities trading scheme that allegedly netted more than $2 million in illegal profits. Thomas Edward Kelly, 32, of Boca Raton and Andrew David Rhee, 32, of Miami Beach were charged with conspiring to commit wire fraud for a scheme that lasted from March 1996 to January of this year, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in New York City.

The scheme allegedly involved using inside information about upcoming purchases or sales of commodities by Boca Raton-based John Henry & Co. _ a commodities trading firm _ to make profitable trades. Kelly worked for Henry & Co.

Kelly and Rhee, who grew up together in Greenwich, Conn., each face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of at least $250,000.

* A federal judge in Los Angeles threw out Charles Keating's state securities fraud conviction for a second time, ruling that the trial judge allowed flawed instructions to be given to jurors.

Keating's savings and loan was accused of defrauding thousands of Lincoln Savings investors who bought high-risk junk bonds. He was convicted in both California and federal courts and served four years in prison, but both convictions were overturned.

U.S. District Judge John Davies originally dismissed the conviction in 1996 and granted Keating a new trial, but a federal appeals court reinstated it last month.

TELECOM

* MCI Communications is offering its residential phone customers unlimited Internet use for $14.95 a month, 25 percent less than its traditional plan, making MCI to the lowest-priced nationwide Internet provider. The discount was introduced Jan. 1.

The offer comes as the No. 2 U.S. long-distance company tries to prevent consumers from leaving for a rival.

Meanwhile, MCI halted plans to invest an additional $900 million in Avantel, its long-distance venture in Mexico, saying current regulations make it tough to earn a profit.